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Investigation into the mechanisms of cut-edge corrosion

Currently Al-rich metallic coated steel is used for diverse applications in automotive industry and general industry (eg.building) throughout the world.

However, one of the aspects hindering further extended use of this highly corrosion resistant steel is the sensitivity to cut edge corrosion in various climates for both painted and unpainted material.

The aim of this work is to improve the knowledge of the corrosion mechanism of existing Al-rich metallic coated steel with an additional organic coating.

In view of this, the line of research is developed in the following points:

Limited set of well-defined samples:

Three metallic coatings with different containts of Al in the metallic coating (supplied by ArcelorMittal)

Well-known organic coating formulation (supplied by DuPont)

Selected techniques: global electrochemistry for samples characterization. Local electrochemical techniques for the corrosion process study: Scanning Vibrating Electrode Technique- Selective Ion Electrode Technique (SVET-SIET), Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (SKP/FM) and Local Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (LEIS) are considered in this research work. These techniques are also coupled with surface analysis techniques as Raman, FT-IR and SEM-EDX.

With those actions it is expected to set a basic research procedure in the study of highly localized corrosion phenomena.